Farmers dissatisfied with the situation in agriculture protested in the Great National Assembly Square. They surrounded the Government building with their tractors and honked their horns non-stop for some time. Farmers from Cahul, Hâncești, Leova, Cantemir, Basarabeasca, Rezina and other districts came to demand more support from the government.
Alexandr Slusari, president of the Farmers’ Force Association, told a press conference that the farmers came to Chisinau because they are “five minutes from going bankrupt”. This year agriculture is affected much harder than in 2020, because of the drought, the war, the breakdown of the logistical chains, the high prices of resources, fertilizers, diesel fuel, and plummeting produce prices under pressure from cheap Ukrainian production. Farmers have no money for salaries and fuel, for harvesting summer agricultural production, and they are in debt, said Slusari.
He recalled that the farmers have five main demands: 3,000 lei compensations per hectare at least for Group 1 grains (wheat, rapeseed and barley); all overdue subsidies must be paid; grain and legume imports from Ukraine must be restricted; the Giurgiulesti Port must be required to prioritize Moldovan exports; and the VAT refund scheme must be extended. On Wednesday, the leaders of the demonstrators are expected to meet with several decision-makers. In the meantime, the protests will continue. Beginning at 10:00 AM the farmers will be again in the Great National Assembly Square.
Following the farmers’ press conference, Prime Minister Dorin Recean appeared before the demonstrators to tell them that the Government is making more than one billion lei available to farmers, and by the end of July additional amounts will be allocated in subsidies.
In an online post, PAS lawmaker Radu Marian said that the authorities have done a number of things for farmers lately. For example, in 2022, the National Fund for the Development of Agriculture and the Rural Environment got a budget of 1.75 billion lei, a 60% increase on the previous year. For 2023, the same amount was allocated, and in the June 2023 budget adjustment, an additional 100 million lei will be allocated for subsidies. For the first time, micro-, small- and medium-sized agricultural producers benefited from excise duty compensation on diesel fuel used in 2022, in the amount of up to 100% or 2980 lei/ton. Meanwhile, the price of diesel fell by more than 12 lei/liter compared to the peak recorded last year. The state refunds the VAT to agricultural producers who suffered losses of more than 50%, and the scheme is continuously simplified. Simplifying the employment of day laborers is another action approved by the authorities. The term for which day laborers can perform activities for the same beneficiary has been extended from 90 to 120 days, and day laborers have been exempted from the mandatory health and social insurance schemes. The amounts of Moldovan plums, table grapes, apples, tomatoes, garlic, cherries and grape juice that will be exported duty-free to the European Union have been doubled, and tractors and power tillers used in agriculture and forestry have been exempted from excise duties regardless of age.
